Ralph Kim Drollinger (born April 20, 1954) is an American clergyman and retired professional

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...

player, and leader of the "

White House The White House is the official residence and workplace of the president of the United States. It is located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., and has been the residence of every U.S. president since John Adams in 1800. ...

Bible Study Group," a study group sponsored by 10 cabinet members which held weekly meetings each Wednesday during the

Trump administration Donald Trump's tenure as the List of presidents of the United States, 45th president of the United States began with Inauguration of Donald Trump, his inauguration on January 20, 2017, and ended on January 20, 2021. Trump, a Republican Party ...

Education

Drollinger attended

Grossmont High School Grossmont High School is the oldest high school in San Diego's east county, California. Its mascot is the Foothiller, so chosen because, at the time of the school's construction, east county was much more isolated from the rest of San Diego than ...

in La Mesa and the

University of California, Los Angeles The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California St ...

, where he received a Bachelor of Arts degree in Geography/Ecosystems. He later received a

Masters of Divinity For graduate-level theological institutions, the Master of Divinity (MDiv, ''magister divinitatis'' in Latin) is the first professional degree of the pastoral profession in North America. It is the most common academic degree in seminaries and di ...

degree from

The Master's Seminary The Master's Seminary (TMS) is the graduate seminary division of The Master's University and Seminary and is located on the campus of Grace Community Church in Sun Valley, California. It is accredited by the WASC Senior College and University ...

Basketball

Drollinger played basketball at Grossmont High School and was the CIF Southern Section MVP, as his team won the 1972 CIF championship as a high school All-American. He was a 7'2" (2.19 m) and 250 lb (114 kg)

center Center or centre may refer to: Mathematics *Center (geometry), the middle of an object * Center (algebra), used in various contexts ** Center (group theory) ** Center (ring theory) * Graph center, the set of all vertices of minimum eccentricity ...

and played collegiately at the

(UCLA). He was the first player in NCAA history to go to four Final Four tournaments. He played for two national championship teams under coach

John Wooden John Robert Wooden (October 14, 1910 – June 4, 2010) was an American basketball coach and player. Nicknamed the Wizard of Westwood, he won ten National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) national championships in a 12-year period as head ...

and after his first season, won the Seymour Armond Award as UCLA's most outstanding freshman. In his junior and senior years he was an Academic All-American. Drollinger also played on America' World Cup Basketball team in 1978. Drollinger was taken in the NBA Draft three times. He chose to forgo the NBA during those years to instead play with

Athletes in Action Athletes in Action (AIA) is an American sports organization founded in 1966. It is the sports ministry of Cru Ministries, formerly known as Campus Crusade for Christ. History Athletes in Action was started in 1966 by Dave Hannah."Fact Sheet: ...

, an evangelistic basketball team that toured the world and preached the gospel at halftimes and represented America in the 1978 FIBA World Championship. He was selected with the 17th pick in the seventh round in 1976 by the

Boston Celtics The Boston Celtics ( ) are an American professional basketball team based in Boston. The Celtics compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Eastern Conference Atlantic Division. Founded in 1946 as one of t ...

, with the 1st pick of the eighth round in 1977 by the

New York Nets New is an adjective referring to something recently made, discovered, or created. New or NEW may refer to: Music * New, singer of K-pop group The Boyz Albums and EPs * ''New'' (album), by Paul McCartney, 2013 * ''New'' (EP), by Regurgitator, ...

, and finally with the 17th pick of the fifth round in 1978 by the

Seattle SuperSonics The Seattle SuperSonics (commonly known as the Seattle Sonics) were an American professional basketball team based in Seattle. The SuperSonics competed in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member club of the league's Western Confe ...

. Drollinger was the first Dallas Maverick ever in the history of the then new NBA franchise. He signed with the

Dallas Mavericks The Dallas Mavericks (often referred to as the Mavs) are an American professional basketball team based in Dallas. The Mavericks compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the Western Conference (NBA), Western Conferenc ...

in June 1980 as a free agent before they had hired Dick Motta as the head coach, motivated by his desire to attend Dallas Theological Seminary during his playing days. He played in only six games due to a knee injury which led to his retirement from basketball in March 1981. In the Mavs' inaugural season in 1980–81, he averaged 2.5 points, 3.2 rebounds and 2.3 assists per game. Some years later after his retirement, Dr. James Dobson invited Drollinger to play in an early morning pick up game with

Pete Maravich Peter Press Maravich ( ; June 22, 1947 – January 5, 1988), known by his nickname Pistol Pete, was an American professional basketball player. Maravich was born in Aliquippa, Pennsylvania, part of the Pittsburgh metropolitan area, and raised in ...

. That morning Maravich collapsed in the middle of the game from a massive heart attack. Dobson and Drollinger administered CPR, but to no avail; Maravich was pronounced dead upon arrival at the hospital. He was selected as one of the Fabulous 50 Basketball Players by the

San Diego Hall of Champions The San Diego Hall of Champions was an American multi-sport museum in San Diego, California until its closure in June 2017. The Hall of Champions housed the Breitbard Hall of Fame - San Diego's sports hall of fame - which is now located at Petco P ...

in 2011.

Sports ministry

After his brief injury-plagued professional career, Drollinger founded and participated in a variety of sports related ministries. He helped found and was the Executive Director of ''Sports Outreach America'', an umbrella trade organization of American church and

parachurch Parachurch organizations are Christian faith-based organizations that work outside and across denominations to engage in social welfare and evangelism. Parachurch organizations seek to come alongside the church and specialize in things that indivi ...

sports ministries, such as the

Fellowship of Christian Athletes The Fellowship of Christian Athletes (FCA) is an international non-profit Christian sports ministry founded in 1954 and based in Kansas City, Missouri. It has staff offices located throughout the United States and abroad. History FCA was found ...

, an
Pro Athletes Outreach
He founded ''Sports Spectrum Magazine'', a bi-monthly print magazine that features the testimony of Christian athletes, the "Path To Victory" Sports New Testament in conjunction with

Biblica Biblica, formerly International Bible Society, was founded in 1809 and is the worldwide copyright holder of the New International Version of the Bible (NIV), licensing commercial rights to Zondervan in the United States and to Hodder & Stoughton ...

, He also founded, produced and financed ''Julius Erving's Sports Focus'', a weekly one-half hour television anthology on

ESPN ESPN (originally an initialism for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., owned jointly by The Walt Disney Company (80%) and Hearst Communications (20%). The ...

featuring the testimony of Christian athletes and hosted by NBA player

Julius Erving Julius Winfield Erving II (born February 22, 1950), commonly known by the nickname Dr. J, is an American former professional basketball player. Erving helped legitimize the American Basketball Association (ABA), and he was the best-known player ...

Capitol ministries

In 1997, Drollinger founded Capitol Ministries, a ministry organization that provides Bible studies, evangelism and discipleship to political leaders. The organization has founded ministries in over 40 US State Capitols since then.name=capitol ministries website Drollinger leads Capitol Ministries in Washington, D.C. and what is referred to internally as ''The Members Bible Study'' in the US Capitol. Drollinger also leads several senior Trump administration officials in a similar group at the

, and provides bible study print-outs for

Donald Trump Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who served as the 45th president of the United States from 2017 to 2021. Trump graduated from the Wharton School of the University of Pe ...

. He is not associated with The Fellowship due to what he perceives as their unbiblical teaching.

Political philosophy

Drollinger is a conservative evangelical Christian who describes his belief that there should indeed be an "institutional" separation of Church and State, but that the Church should still "influence" the State. Drollinger is also on record as being anti-LGBTQ, anti-women's rights, anti-immigration (he supports family separation at the border), a

climate change denier Climate change denial, or global warming denial, is denial, dismissal, or doubt that contradicts the scientific consensus on climate change, including the extent to which it is caused by humans, its effects on nature and human society, or the ...

, and declaring

Catholicism The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

as "one of the primary false religions of the world." In March 2020, Drollinger generated controversy when he appeared to link the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

with God's wrath and homosexuality. He later stated that he was misinterpreted and that he did not "believe that homosexuality played any role whatsoever in the coronavirus."

Publications

*''Rebuilding America: The Biblical Blueprint''

Personal life

Drollinger is married to Danielle Madison, the founding and former executive director of California's Allied Business PAC, with whom he shares three children and seven grandchildren. He is also the son of the founder of Adventure16, a retail chain of mountaineering specialty stores located throughout Southern California. Drollinger is a world-class mountaineer and is the first person to have climbed every peak on the main ridge of the

Sierra Nevada The Sierra Nevada () is a mountain range in the Western United States, between the Central Valley of California and the Great Basin. The vast majority of the range lies in the state of California, although the Carson Range spur lies primarily ...

between Olancha and Sonora Pass, California, the 250 mile section of the ridge commonly referred to as the High Sierra.

References

External links

Drollinger biography from Capitol Ministries
{{DEFAULTSORT:Drollinger, Ralph 1954 births Living people 20th-century Protestant religious leaders 21st-century Protestant religious leaders American Christian religious leaders American men's basketball players Basketball players from California Boston Celtics draft picks Centers (basketball) Dallas Mavericks players New Jersey Nets draft picks People from La Mesa, California Seattle SuperSonics draft picks Sportspeople from Santa Clarita, California Sportspeople from San Diego County, California UCLA Bruins men's basketball players United States men's national basketball team players 1978 FIBA World Championship players